“Chess is my Life” Korchnoi vs. “Uncompromising Chess” Beliavsky

Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi was born March 23, 1931, in Leningrad, USSR. He defected (the old word for escaping from the Soviets) to the Netherlands. Later, he moved (what a free person does) to Switzerland. In 1974, he lost the Candidates final to Karpov, who was handed the world championship in 1975 when Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title. Korchnoi played World Championship matches with Karpov in 1978 and 1981, losing each time. Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship ten times (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991). Korchnoi won the USSR Championship four times. In 2006, he won the World Senior Championship.Alexander Beliavsky (pictured) was born on December 17, 1953 in Lviv, Ukraine. He was a Ukrainian grandmaster until freely moving to Slovenia. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1973 and the USSR Chess Championship in 1974 and 1990. He was a candidate three times.Both players have written chess books. The title of this article uses the names of books by them which refer to what chess means to them. One of the meetings between them was at Leon 1994 in a Semi-Slav Defense. Beliavsky took clear first place with 6 wins, 2 draws, and one loss (7/9). Korchnoi ended in sixth place with 2 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses (4/9). Korchnoi’s performance was below what was expected for his rating, but was respected by his peers since he was almost 23 years older than Beliavsky, not to mention other players such as Peter Leko.